If you can handle your fair share of gore and mind games in just under two hours, Insidious: Chapter 2 might be the horror movie for you. Going into this film, I was expecting your typical scary movie routine: a creepy score playing loudly in the background as characters screamed and ran all over the place for their lives. Such simplicity is terrifying in horror movies, and usually provides a pretty chilling effect. Something always seems off, and you’re hanging on the edge of your seat waiting for the next horrible (and maybe not-so-unexpected) twist. However, Insidious: Chapter 2 proved to be just the opposite of my expectations. I was hanging on the edge of my seat for the entire movie because the plot was so unexpectedly complicated and unique.

This sequel begins where the first film left off; the Lambert family is still haunted by the supernatural world. In a flashback to 1986, twenty-five years prior to when the first movie was set, the camera zooms in on the Lambert family’s unsettlingly spacious house. A boy sits motionless as a medium hypnotizes him and attempts to discover what was haunting him. Although you see the ensuing destruction, you don’t immediately find out what the supernatural being was or what its motives were. The movie is especially eerie because the main characters are portrayed as a run-of-the-mill family — loving parents and their adorable two sons. You watch in horror as the wife, Renai, is terrified of her husband because she’s uncertain if he’s to blame for the recent deaths occurring in their household. The husband physically decays, teeth falling out, cheeks hollowing. All the while, he’s not truly to blame for what has happened.

Insidious: Chapter 2 explores the idea of alternate dimensions and plays with your psyche much more than any other thriller I’ve seen. It’s definitely a movie worth seeing; it’s so fast-paced and jaw-dropping, you may be left longing for a third installment.